Visa Europe invests £24.7m in Monitise

31 October 2011 | 10675 views | 0

Visa Europe has invested £24.7 million in Monitise and put its CEO, Peter Ayliffe, on the UK mobile money outfit's board.

Visa Europe inked a deal with Monitise in February to hawk mobile payment services to its member banks. The vendor has since been "acting as an advanced development engine" for Visa Europe, with the first services - mobile person-to-person payments and alerts - unveiled last month.

Now the bond between the two has been strengthened with the £24.7 million investment, at an issue price of 35p per share. This gives Visa Europe 70.5 million new Monitise shares - an 8.8% stake.

Peter Ayliffe, president and chief executive of Visa Europe will also join Monitise's board as a non-executive director.

Says Ayliffe: "We believe that the growth of mobile phone services and e-commerce, together with the evolution of the mobile handset into the smartphone, present two of the most significant opportunities for the payments technology industry today. To ensure Visa Europe is at the forefront, we can announce today that we have made a significant investment in Monitise, our mobile payment technology strategic partner, as a demonstration of our belief in the crucial role that mobile has to play in the further development of the payments industry and also of our commitment to delivering the future of payments across Europe."

Visa Europe is following in the footsteps of Visa (which it is independent from) which acquired a 14.4% stake in Monitise in 2009.

Meanwhile, Monitise has also moved to strengthen its position in the US, buying the 51% stake in its US joint venture owned by FIS. Monitise Americas was established in 2007 by Monitise and US vendor Metavante, which FIS acquired in 2009. The UK vendor has now agreed to buy out its partner, issuing Metavante with a 3.3% stake in Monitise, worth $15 million.

Alastair Lukies, CEO, Monitise, says: "Our evolved relationship with FIS ensures that Monitise is ideally placed to play a leadership role in the North American mobile money market, which is following similar trends of growth to those we have experienced in the UK over the past 12 months."